Audiobook Production for the Indy Author

August 25, 2016

Maximize Your Reach

When I published my first novel, The Sense of Death, in print and ebook formats, I thought I had all my bases covered. Then my mentor, Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, encouraged me to consider audio, and I discovered a whole new way to Maximize My Reach to my potential audience!

(My three guiding principles of independent publishing are Focus Your Goals and Efforts, Professionalize Your Product and Presentation, and Maximize Your Reach and Exposure.)​When I began considering audio for my own book, I thought I should first familiarize myself with the current state of audiobook listening—it had been a long time since my Books on Tape days, back when they really were on tape. I got an Audible membership and began using my credits to download books. I listened on my way to work and realized one of the great benefits of audiobooks—fitting more book consumption into an already packed day.

One of my favorites was The Martian; Andy Weir’s very funny writing is supported by R. C. Bray’s equally funny narration. I’m glad I listened to the book rather than reading it because I would have been tempted to skip over some of the more technical sections that turned out to be integral to the story. (It also made me appreciate the art of effectively-used profanity—maybe I should add more swearing to my third book!)

A less well known but equally fun listen was James Hynes’ Kings of Infinite Space, a story that manages to be both amusing and creepy, bolstered by a fantastic narration by Adam Grupper.​Becoming an audiobook listener made me enthusiastic about pursuing that platform and set me up for the next steps of audiobook production—picking the platform I would use.

Picking a Platform

In the first section, I discussed how you can Maximize Your Reach by adding audio in addition to print and ebooks formats in order to cover all the ways that your audience may want to consume your content. In this section, I’ll discuss picking a platform.

This was actually a pretty easy decision for me. As in so many areas of independent publishing, Amazon is the leader through their Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). Amazon owns Audible and has more than 90% of audiobook market, so the reach is great. And from an indy publisher point of view, using an Amazon platform offers desirable benefits in terms of links with the print and ebook versions. For example, here is the Amazon product detail page for The Sense of Death showing all three format options—print, ebook, and audio:

In addition to displaying all the formats together, you can see that Amazon also gives customers who click on the Audible option easy access to the reviews posted by readers of other formats.

Another cool feature of using ACX / Audible / Amazon is Whispersync:

Whispersync is a program that allows readers who enjoy both ebooks and audiobooks to sync up their reading experience when they purchase both versions. These readers get a significant discount on the audiobook when they buy the Kindle edition first or they already own it. The discount can be over 80 percent when they want to buy both.

The jury is out over whether Whispersync is a positive or negative feature for authors. On the positive side, you’ll likely sell more copies of your audiobooks and fans can get immersed deeper into your world. On the negative side, 40 percent (or 20 percent on a Royalty Share deal) of $1.99, isn’t all that exciting to see on your monthly royalty statement.http://authormarketinginstitute.com/5-acx-terms-you-need-to-know/

I’m definitely willing to sacrifice some royalty money to build a more engaged audience, so Whispersync was a draw for me.ACX is such an overwhelming presence in the industry that it’s difficult to find information on alternatives, but here is an article by Jane Friedman on CD Baby: https://janefriedman.com/acx-alternative-2/

​I was quickly sold on using ACX—my next area of investigation was pricing and royalties. Read on!

Pricing & Royalties

One disconcerting thing about ACX is that, unlike with print or ebook, the author has no control over the price of the product. In general, audiobooks on Audible are priced based on length—for example, a book less than one hour is generally priced at less than $7, a book over 20 hours is generally priced at $25-$35. However, this is a guideline only, and “Audible retains the sole discretion to set the price of the audiobooks it sells.” (https://www.acx.com/help/what-s-the-deal/200497690)

In addition, there are a couple of ways an audiobook customer can purchase your book beyond the a la carte option described above. One is via credits if he or she is an Audible member. This results in a lower cost for the book and, I believe, a lower resulting royalty. Another way a customer can purchase an audiobook on certain eligible books is via Whispersync, meaning that a customer who has a Kindle version of the book can purchase the audiobook for a deeply discounted price. In its “What’s the Deal?” write-up, ACX says, “The royalty you earn <on Whispersync sales> will be the royalty rate based on your contract times the Whispersync upgrade price.” I gather this to mean that both sales to a customer using Audible membership credits and sales to customers eligible for the Whispersync discount will result a lower price and thus a lower royalty.

Audible doesn’t control how iTunes prices a book, but will pay a royalty as if the sale were an Audible a la carte sale.For an overview of ACX royalties, I’m going to rely on this clear and concise description provided by the Author Marketing Institute:… there are different potential royalty splits depending on how you created your audiobook. If you selected Pay for Production by paying up front for your book, then you’ll have A 60/40 ROYALTY SPLIT. Audible will receive 60 percent of each sale, while you collect 40 percent. You must choose to be exclusive to Audible for seven years to get the 40 percent royalty, which drops to 25 percent if you go non-exclusive. …​If you’ve used the Royalty Share option to get your book produced, then you’ll split the 40 percent royalties in half. Audible will take 60 percent of exclusive books, your narrator will take 20 percent, and you’ll get the remaining 20 percent. Non-exclusive contracts are not available through Royalty Share. All contracts with ACX are for seven years. If you sign the exclusive contract, you won’t be able to sell your audiobook on any other platforms for at least seven years.http://authormarketinginstitute.com/how-acx-earnings-work/

I used the Royalty Share option for The Sense of Death and the Pay for Production option for The Sense of Reckoning, and have pros and cons for each that I will share in the next section!

Who Will Narrate?

One of the most important decisions you will make about your audiobook is whether to narrate it yourself or whether to hire a professional narrator / producer. Each approach has its pros and cons, based on my experience with ACX …

As an author narrator, you know exactly how it is “supposed” to sound. With a professional narrator, you get the valuable experience of hearing how another person interprets your words.

As an author narrator, you need to master narration skills—the ability to speak for extended periods without your voice becoming scratchy (or a schedule that allows for many short recording sessions); the ability to maintain consistent volume and tempo over many chapters; perhaps the ability to provide convincing renditions of various accents. With a professional narrator, you get … well … a professional who, based on their audition, can demonstrate that they have mastered these skills.

As an author narrator, you have an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your readers (IF the performance is good); this is especially valuable for non-fiction authors who are pairing their books with consulting engagements. With a professional narrator, you get a professional-grade performance by a non-author narrator, which is far preferable to a sub-professional-grade performance by an author narrator.

As an author narrator, you will need to have the technical equipment as well as a space conducive to recording. With a professional narrator, you get someone who has the needed equipment and space.

As an author narrator, you take on the financial risk of equipping yourself and the time investment of doing the recording with no guaranteed payback. With a professional narrator, with a royalty share arrangement, there is no financial risk to having someone else narrate, and the only time investment is quality assuring the recording.

As an author narrator, depending on your skill, knowledge, and time, you have complete control over the process. With a professional narrator, you get a professional who is not just a “voice for hire”—he or she is a creative individual who will bring their own interpretation of your work.

It was an easy decision for me to choose a professional narrator, especially because I had read that for an inexperienced person can take up to 12 hours to produce one finished hour of audio and I just didn’t have that kind of time available.In the next section, I’ll discuss the process of engaging a narrator / producer, and the production process.

Engaging a (Non-Author) Narrator

Based on the considerations detailed in Part 4 of Audiobook Production for The Indy Author—“Who Will Narrate?”—I knew I wanted to engage a professional narrator (not narrate my audiobook myself). This section is a high level description of what came next in my work with ACX, and some tips I gleaned along the way.

Post your book excerpt.

Make sure you use a scene that includes the main characters and, if possible, that enables narrators to demonstrate their ability to represent a variety of emotions, accents, or other aspects of the story.

Define desired narrator characteristics.

On ACX, there is a seemingly limitless number of characteristics you can specify—gender, age, accent, ethnicity, tone (for example, dramatic or comedic).

Wait for audition submissions OR solicit auditions.

Once submitted, your book will show up to prospective narrators as accepting auditions. I got a couple of auditions for The Sense of Death that weren’t quite right for one reason or another, so I started soliciting auditions from people whose demo recordings I liked, which are searchable using the same criteria you use to define the desired narrator characteristics.​After you’ve listened to a couple dozen auditions, they all start to sound the same, so use a spreadsheet to track your assessments—include the narrator’s name, a rating (positive / undecided / negative is sufficient), and brief note (e.g., “Pleasant voice but spoke too fast”), which will prevent you from wasting time re-listening to recordings that you had legitimately eliminated on an earlier listen. Then contact the narrators you had rated as positives to ask for an audition for your book.Once you’ve found the right narrator for your book …

Negotiate the contract.

50/50 Royalty Share

This is a great way to break into the audiobook arena because there is no cost up front—you agree to split the proceeds (after ACX has deducted their cut) 50/50 with the narrator for seven years. If you’re not an established author, it’s likely that this means you will be working with a less experienced narrator, but that can have advantages in that he or she may be more accommodating to your requests. The royalty split approach also has the benefit of creating an incentive for your narrator to help you with promotion for the audiobook. For me, these considerations outweighed the downside of giving half the royalties to the narrator for the seven year term. This is the agreement I came to with my narrator for The Sense of Death.

Pay for Production (Per Finished Hour Fee)

This agreement means that you pay the narrator an agreed-upon per hour fee based on how long the audiobook ends up being–e.g., if your book runs ten hours and you have agreed on a $50 per finished hour rate, you will pay them $500. It is NOT based on how many hours it takes the narrator to record the book. ACX provides an estimate of the probable finished hours based on word count, so you have a good idea of what the investment will be upfront. The per finished hour rate varies wildly based on the stature of the narrator, but if you’re willing to work with a less established narrator, the price can be quite reasonable. This approach incents the narrator to finish the work quickly so that he or she can get paid, but could carry the risk of he or she rushing the process, possibly requiring more requests for edits (although I never experienced this with my narrator). The approach carries more financial risk for the author, but means that once you’ve paid the narrator their one-time fee, you keep all the royalties. This is the agreement I came to with my narrator for The Sense of Reckoning.

In the next section, I will describe the preparation for the production processes.

Prep and Production

Once you’ve selected a narrator, here are some tips for preparing for the production process

Ask the narrator to read the entire book before beginning recording.

I don’t believe this is standard procedure, but it can’t hurt to ask—my narrator agreed to this, and said she found it helpful.

Provide the narrator with a brief biography of each character (gender, age, personality, accent).

This will avoid the unfortunate situation of a narrator not finding out until Chapter 5 that the character has a French accent.

Send links to pronunciations of odd words, local place names, proper names, etc. Stick with one reputable source when possible, to help with consistency.

Don’t expect your narrator to know how to pronounce “Schuylkill” if they don’t live near Philadelphia (and maybe even if they do). Also consider that there are lots of words that a well-read reader recognizes, but that one hardly ever hears spoken (“objet d’art”), and so the pronunciation may not be clear. Also, keep in mind that your narrator may not have the same assumptions about pronunciations of proper names as you do. The last name of several of my characters in The Sense of Reckoning is “Lynam”—it never occurred to me to pronounce that any way other than “LIE-num” and it never occurred to my narrator to pronounce it any way other than “LI-num.”And some tips for the production process itself …

Listen to entire recording!

I gather that there are authors who, once they are satisfied with the narrator’s general approach, never listen to the full book, but I can’t imagine not applying this quality assurance check. After recording for hour after hour, the inevitable mistake is bound to slip through—words transposed, “brother” substituted for “sister,” some audio glitch. You wouldn’t send out an ebook or print book without a proofread—make sure you give your audiobook a “proof listen.”

Listen as the narrator finishes each chapter (not when he/she is done).

Fortunately, I caught the “LI-num / LIE-num” issue before the narrator had recorded too many chapters, so it was relatively easy for her to make the changes (or so she graciously claimed).

Create a spreadsheet to track changes needed.

I recommend you log Status (Open, Ready for Review, Closed), Location (chapter and timestamp), Change (a description of what you want to have changed), Date Logged, and Miscellaneous Notes.If you can share this tracking spreadsheet with the narrator via a mechanism like Dropbox, all the better.

Limit changes to things that are objectively incorrect—remember, your narrator is a creative, too!

I’ll admit to one time when I violated this rule—early in The Sense of Death there is a scene involving an argument between a father and a son which sets up the chain of events which is central to the story. When I wrote the scene, I pictured the father being angry and frustrated with his son, whom he considers a screw-up, but the narrator read it as if the father was being cruel to his son. I waffled a bit on whether to request a change to this, but I eventually decided to ask the narrator about it and she agreed (again graciously) to re-record that section. However, in retrospect it wouldn’t have made a great deal of difference—the characterization of the father in the audiobook would have been different from what I had intended, but not necessarily wrong. (I do think that this issue won’t have arisen if I had instituted my own tip, which I started only with my second book, to ask the narrator to read entire book before beginning recording. I think she would have come to the understanding that the father wasn’t a cruel man, just a frustrated one.)

What I Learned

What did I learn from my audiobook creation experience:

Hearing someone else’s interpretation of what you’ve written shows how many ways even a carefully crafted sentence—or even an entire scene—can be interpreted (as illustrated by the characterization of the father referenced above).

I need to be a little less sparing with my use of commas—it was clear that a few more punctuation markers in a sentence would have given my narrator, and probably my reader, some useful guidance.

Swear words are a lot more jarring when you hear them than when you read them (or write them).

It’s possible to choked up by a sad part or have your heart speed up at a suspenseful part when listening to an audiobook, even when it’s your own.

Best of luck with your own audiobook—please go to www.theindyauthor.com to the About & Contact tab and drop me a note about your experience!

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